Sometimes a buzzword takes on a life of it’s own. The current example: 2.0. While not exactly a word, when you pair it with something else you get something like “Web 2.0” or, as I read about in yesterday’s Montreal Gazette, “Cemetery 2.0.” Cemetery 2.0 is a device attached to a tombstone that has a satellite internet connection and acts as a web terminal to allow grave site visitors to view the deceased’s surviving web presence, including things such as a Facebook profile and Flickr photos.
While the idea of having something more than a piece of stone to remember someone by is great, I’m really writing about the name here. Cemetery 2.0 is a bit too trendy of a name, an example of a buzzword going too far, and being taken to places where it probably shouldn’t be used. What happens when the Cemetery 2.0 goes into production and a second version comes out? Do we get Cemetery 2.0 2.0?